It was well past midnight when the phone woke me from a deep sleep.
Like most people receiving a call in the wee hours, my immediate confusion upon being woken was replaced with a sense of dread. After all, when has a late night phone call ever yielded positive news for the recipient? As I reached for the receiver, I was already bracing myself to receive news most tragic.
“Hello, will you accept a collect call from a Peaches Christ?” Oh, she would.
After allowing a few moments to let my anxiety subside and to accept the charges, I had but two questions for Peaches: “What are you calling me about…and why so late?”
It turns out the answer to the latter was a simple, “Because I knew you’d be home,” and the answer to the former was the slightly more important matter of the trip Peaches took to Austin, Texas.
For those of you not in the know, following the world premiere of Joshua Grannell’s All About Evil at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, the film was set to have its second ever public screening at the famed Alamo Drafthouse in Austin.
Accompanying the film on this voyage would be Peaches and two of the film’s stars, Mink Stole and Cassandra Peterson, who were set to delight the Texan exploitation audience with a bawdy preshow that only they could deliver.
The phone call that Peaches made to me was to discuss all the sordid details of that adventure, not only because she knew I’d want to know, but also because Peaches knows that as the “Carrie Bradshaw of Horror,” I would write about her exploits and bring them to you, the children of the popcorn.
So, although it cost me a few hours of sleep, I’m glad to present to you the following details about Peaches Christ’s taking of the Alamo…
…and yes, she did see the basement.
“I definitely think I’d be broke and very fat if I lived in Austin,” Peaches told me, “because I’d be spending all my time at the Alamo Drafthouse!”
For fans of exploitation and horror cinema, the Alamo Drafthouse is a mecca. It’s been praised openly by filmmakers such as Peter Jackson and Quentin Tarantino, and is known for its impeccable film programming. In addition to showing all the movies you’d ever want to see both past and present, the Alamo Drafthouse is unique in the respect that it also is something of a dinner theater, allowing guests to eat while the show unravels in front of them.
I’m told the menu is pretty vast and that the fried pickles are to die for…of course, my sources are pretty limited.
So, while the audience was feasting and waiting for the stars of the film to hit the stage, they were treated to a unique
exploitation film reel that was put together by the people of the Drafthouse specifically for the All About Evil event.
The reel included such thematic clips as the trailer for the 1978 exploitation film The Evil, signifying for the audience, as Grannell’s film title proclaims, what this evening would be all about.
With the mood set by the exploitation reel, the show was kicked off by Rebecca Havemeyer, the Alamo’s resident queen-in-residence, who introduced Peaches to the audience. Just as she did at the San Francisco premiere, Peaches made her initial greetings to the audience through a song-and-dance number before calming down the throngs of fans to make a few introductions of her own.
As mentioned above, Peaches did not travel alone, and as reels showing clips of John Waters movies and Elvira amped the audience to the arrival of Mink Stole and Cassandra Peterson respectively, it was clear that Texas was ready to welcome these cult cinema goddesses with open arms.
Each woman had a chance to shine solo in the spotlight as Mink and Cassandra both had individual Q&A sessions conducted by Peaches, wherein they were able to talk to the audience about their lives and careers. The palatable energy and enthusiasm of the Drafthouse’s audience proved that there was no clear favorite between the two, as the crowd eagerly hung on the words of each icon.
Following the individual Q&A sessions, Rebecca Havemeyer returned to the stage to turn the table on Peaches and conduct a Q&A with all three stars about the film that everyone had gathered to see that night. If ever there was a way to amp anticipation for the movie one is about to watch, Rebecca Havemeyer certainly delivered.
It is important to note however, that no matter how much anticipation the audience may have had going into the movie, it may have been matched by the film’s own star, Cassandra Peterson…who was seeing All About Evil for the very first time that night. Peterson, who was unable to make it to the premiere due to an appearance elsewhere as her alter-ego Elvira, was the last hold-out of the film’s cast to have not seen the movie.
Which begs the question…
…did she like it?
At the Q&A that preceded the film’s second screening that night, Cassandra was equipped with an answer to this expected question, having barely had a chance to process the movie she had just seen mere moments before.
She admitted that since she was used to seeing herself in sleeker, sexier garb, the frumpish house mother clothes her character had to wear were slightly disappointing…
…but the film was not!
In fact, she loved it.
If reports from the Austin film community are to be believed, the infamous Mistress of the Dark was not the only one either. The film was met with enormous enthusiasm, much applause, and the internet banter ever since the screening has been considerable. All About Evil was a surefire hit when it played in its home town of San Francisco, but with Austin, Texas…it proved it also can capture the hearts of foreign lands. Leaving the Alamo Drafthouse that night, Peaches Christ not only proved why she is a cult idol in San Francisco, but why she is soon set to be one the world over.
Perhaps though, the best cap to this story happened not at the Alamo Drafthouse or even in the city of Austin, but at the airport on Peaches and company’s way out of town.
Apparently while Peaches was waiting on her plane (I always wonder if the airlines make her buy an extra seat because of her big hair), she spotted a group of teens…one of whom was wearing a Peaches Christ t-shirt.
Being the ever so subtle personality that she is, Peaches remarked to the girl how much she loved the shirt, only to discover that the teen was just one of a whole high school class from Louisana who had flown to Texas to see the screening of All About Evil.
Apparently the students’ media teacher had heard that the film was being screened at the Alamo and thought it was a perfect field trip on which to take his media class. Thanks to one hell of a cool teacher, a whole new generation of children of the popcorn had popped. Flattered by such devotion, Peaches tells me that she invited each and every one of the students to be part of her show should All About Evil play in New Orleans.
I just urge her to remember that since these are high school students, she may want to refrain from offering them up to the audience for lap dances, as she has been known to do to her fellow performers on occasion.
Otherwise, I think the lesson learned from the students is an awesome, yet simple one: The word is out.
All About Evil has only screened in two theaters thus far and already people are travelling great distances to see the film. This thought really resonated in my mind as I put the phone back in its cradle following my conversation with Peaches. In just a few short weeks, San Francisco and Austin have succumbed to cult film fever…and it’s merely the beginning.
As Peaches and company amp up their summer tour, based on what we’ve seen in these two cities, I think the end result is going to be inevitable:
By the end of summer, the entire country will be all about evil.
…and if I know Peaches Christ, the world will soon follow.
Until that day, my dear children of the popcorn, remember the Alamo.
